Inflation... once started, is eternal
Domenico Cilenti
Inflation... ripples in the fabric of space-time... sounds of our universe being wrenched violently apart... a pale light ... an image which
“The South Pole is the closest you can get to space and still be on the ground,” said John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “It’s one of the driest and clearest locations on Earth, perfect for observing the faint microwaves from the Big Bang.” The new experiment measures light emitted when the universe first became transparent to light. Bloomberg John Lauerman and Robert Langreth, March 18, 2014
expands and dissolves moments later into a faint afterglow
Cosmic Inflation:‘Spectacular’ discovery hailed “I can’t tell you how exciting this is. Inflation sounds like a crazy idea, but everything that is important, everything we see today - the galaxies, the stars, the planets - was imprinted at that moment.” Comment by British Scientist Dr Jo Dunkley, who has been searching through data from the European Planck space telescope for a B-mode signal
BBC News
Jonathan Amos, March 17, 2014
For decades, cosmologists have thought that the signature of primordial gravitational waves could be imprinted on this radiation. “It’s been called the Holy Grail of cosmology,” said Hiranya Peiris, a cosmologist from University College London. The Guardian
Inflation Photos by Domenico Cilenti On the cover: Particular of statue in wood of the Madonna, Chiesa di San Giorgio, Varenna, Lago di Lecco, Italy. by Domenico Cilenti e-mail: nicocilenti@gmail.com
Space Ripples Reveal Big Bang’s Smoking Gun Reaching back across 13.8 billion years to the first sliver of cosmic time with telecopes at the South Pole (Bicep, for Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalatic Polarization), a team of astronomers led by John M. Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics detected ripples in the fabric of space-time so-called gravitational waves - the signature of a universe being wrenched violently apart when it was roughly a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second old - a decimal point followed by 33 zeros and a one. We might never know what happened before inflation, at the very beginning, because inflation erases everything that came before it. All the chaos and randomness of the primordial moment are swept away, forever out of our view. The New York Times Dennis Overbye, March 17, 2014
First Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation “This work offers new insights into some of our most basic questions: Why do we exist? How did the universe begin?” Harvard theorist Avi Loeb Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics March 17, 2014
“It’s just amazing. You can see back to the beginning of time.” Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, at Arizona State University
NPR Scott Neuman, March 17, 2014
“Certainly everything in the universe that we see now, at one time before inflation, was smaller than an electron,” said Stanford physicist Kent Irwin. “And then it expanded during inflation at faster than the speed of light. Light sets the universe’s speed limit, but space-time is an exception; it can stretch faster than the speed of light.” Another cool tidbit: inflation can be used in theories that suggest the existence of multiple universes, Irwin said, although these results do not directly address such theories. CNN Elizabeth Landau, March 18, 2014
A new look at the Big Bang, moments later The discovery comes at a historic time - a half century after a pair of scientists at Bell Labs used a horn-shaped antenna on top of a hill in New Jersey to make measurements of microwave radiation. They saw a stubborn, noisy background signal in their data, and despite efforts to get rid of it, it remained. Eventually, they realized it wasn’t due to faulty equipment, but was the faint afterglow of the Big Bang. The Boston Globe Carolyn Y. Johnson, March 17, 2014
Gravitational waves, which are small ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted, are the sounds of our universe. Astronomers have been looking for years for a potential electromagnetic light signal that would accompany or follow the gravitational waves. This signal would allow us to “look through the peephole after hearing the faint knock on the door,” and verify that indeed “someone” is there. Comments: So, finally, man stands at the door of eternity. A closed door he cannot enter, beyond which he cannot see. Before the Universe began, its hidden “prehistory”. “Beyond” the visible universe is a shell of pure energy in some form... since we yet can’t peer outside the universe’s horizon, we will likely never know if anything’s out there or not... Is the “forbidden fruit of knowledge” that? Is it wise for us humans to know the full extent of creation or is it, on the other hand, our ultimate quest? What would we do with the knowledge of genesis/creation? Go further? What would it do to organized religions? Destroy them or yield a new religion that is undeniably true? What would that do to a primitive society/species such as humanity... would it result in a surrender of morals and everyone for themselves on the opposite... and appreciation for the real? The Daily Galaxy Great Discoveries Channel, March 18, 2014
Why Inflation? “This is one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time,” said Max Tegmark, a physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to The Boston Globe. “It’s just like when something big happens in your personal life and you keep waking up and saying, ‘Whoa!’ I keep having these ‘whoa!’ moments. This is absolutely spectacular.” That’s precisely what I felt when I heard the news immediately connected with images of the Madonna and the eternal moment of a mother and her son violently wrenched apart and the tremors of that event rippling with energy across space and time. So let me begin the journey... many years ago when I was young and felt a great desire to create sculpture. I so wanted to absorb quickly all the secrets of sculpting and the art of casting metals, so I went directly to the foundry. Strangely enough this was also a mystical moment in my life and I found myself unexpectedly drawn to the sacred arts. I had no desire to “write” an icon on canvas, but instead desired to let Her “write” an icon in bronze. In the initial phase of realizing the icon in terracotta, the figure of the Madonna appeared in every aspect a mother overwhelmed with sorrow, clenching the shroud of her son into her bosom. Perhaps due to my technical inexperience, in the drying process the terracotta broke into so many pieces. Yet, I couldn’t abandon Her. With passion, patience and love, I glued the pieces together and
Particular of bronze enameled sculpture of the Madonna by Domenico Cilenti (7,75 w x 9,50 h inches).
of the discovery of gravitational waves and I
Particular of statue in wood of the Madonna, Chiesa di San Giorgio, Varenna, Lago di Lecco, Italy.
cast “Her” in bronze and the Madonna
photography has become my passion.
came to life.
And in my frequent travels to Greece with my inseparable Greek-American wife...
I didn’t want to throw away the clay
we visit many orthodox churches
model. And so, I immerged Her in a mold
filled with icons. With great respect for
of liquid plexiglass, a transparent
the sacredness of the place, I timidly
material similar to glass which melts at
photograph the icons and in
900° C. The result was catastrophic: the
a special way the Madonna... who is
mold was full of air bubbles and no
difficult to “catch”... although I feel that
longer transparent. A year would pass
“She” is granting me permission to
before I could give to the icon
capture her through the eye of my
“her” transparency and “her” beauty: all
camera. So much so that all the
the air bubbles were subjected to drilling
images of “Her”, to date, are so full
and refilled once again with liquid
of life and illuminated by an eternal light.
plexiglass. In the end, three air bubbles remained in the mold that seemed like
More specifically and to the story and
tears falling from her right eye.
images at hand. On one of my frequent trips with my wife to Varenna on Lake
I was young, sceptical... but nevertheless,
Como in Italy to sign documents after
filled with wonder at “her” apparition
my father’s death, we were caught in a
although justifying the result as a
violent snowstorm. I recalled that it was
technical effect. But in my unconscious I
January 28, 2006, my father’s nameday:
knew that wasn’t so!
St.Tommaso d’Aquino. And as we were completely isolated in this enchanting
The icon is, in fact, more than a religious
village with nothing to do... we decided
image; it’s a true religious art that has a
to visit once again the church dating
specific place in the liturgy and private
from the 12th century in the center of
prayers and veneration; it is an efficient
the village.
means of knowing God, the Virgin Mary and the Saints; it is a confession of
For the first time I saw emerging
religious truths, not simply an art which
from the shadows a Madonna sculpted in
illustrates the sacred Scriptures; it is a
wood - a Madonna so sweet, so beautiful
language that has no equal and
so full of sorrow... wanting to speak. I
corrisponds to the Gospels and Liturgic
photographed “Her” for my iconographic
writings. It is a simple and direct form of
collection.
expression which can point in a concise way to the Mystery.
When I returned to Rome, I wanted to print the Madonna, but the
In recent years - no longer so young
computer program crashed and the
although still young in spirit -
printer blocked. After trying several
Particular of statue in wood of the Madonna, Chiesa di San Giorgio, Varenna, Lago di Lecco, Italy.
From the photo on the left, the transfiguration (above) of the Madonna of Varenna into her artistic poetic form with tears of stained blood in her suffering eyes. From the shroud clutched tightly to her bosom one can make out the tumefied figure, in particular the eyes, of Jesus and the crown of thorns.
times, I succeeded in printing the statue
Spiritual signs present themselves to each
of the Madonna... but in my haste I
of us during our lives and, I believe,
placed the shiny side of the photographic
often.
paper upside down and the effect was a blob of color. In order to absorb this
To believe or not to believe... depends
stain, I covered it with a piece of paper
on so many factors... depends on our
and left it to dry.
intellectual maturity... our ability to look, to see and to catch the light crossing our
Several hours passed. There was no
path which will eventually become a faint
longer a stain on the paper but an artistic
afterglow... precisely what happened with
form poetically resembling the Madonna
the poetic image of the Madonna as
with tears of blood in her eyes and from
revealed in these photos.
the shroud emerged the tumefied figure of Christ with his bristling crown of thorns (above on the right).
The miracle repeats itself every day. Domenico Cilenti
Today, the transfigured image above of the Madonna of Varenna is disappearing. What remains is only a faint afterglow of the two original photos on the left.
The Madonna
2. Madonna Hodighitria (Madonna with the
According to tradition, the original image
infant Jesus: He who leads the Way)
of the Madonna was painted by the Evangelist St. Luke in three diverse
3. Madonna Eleusa (Madonna with the
rappresentations:
infant Jesus: Image of Love). The Icons of
1. Madonna Orante (Madonna without the
the Madonna with the infant Jesus are also
infant Jesus)
defined as “Icons of the Incarnation�.
Inflation... a faint afterglow
The image above is slowly disappearing. She allowed us to “look through the peephole after hearing the faint knock on the door,” and verify that indeed “someone” is there. You need to believe, believe, believe in order to attain consciousness.
Domenico Cilenti e-mail: nicocilenti@gmail.com